ToyotaKarl’s RAV4 Adventure (with engine rebuild)

[Its me]

This is the story of the little RAV4.

A few months ago, my Niece graduated from the University of Cincinnatti, and we were all very proud of her. She had never really had a car of her own due to her being a poor college student. So for her graduation, her mother was going to help her buy her a car.
At first, her mother was going to give her $4,000 towards a car…. Then a few months later the number dropped to $2,000. After all was said and done it dropped to $900…. That is where I stepped in as the uncle. There is no doubt that I will put some money into this car… I have been close with my niece all her life and she is a great kid… So I will be dropping some coin on this car… I want her to have a safe, reliable car that will last for years…. much work will need to be done…

She asked me to help her find a car…. For $900 I knew it would be a stretch, but since I can work on cars, perhaps we can make something better.
She wanted a car that got good gas mileage, was small and believe it or not, a manual transmission. Since she is going to live in Colorado, I wanted her to have something with All Wheel Drive and would be sure-footed during inclimate weather. So I found her a RAV4, All Wheel Drive with a Manual 5 speed transmission …
I went to see the car, it was a 1996, 2 door green model with dual sunroofs!! and as I would find out later, actually a fairly desirable car for this reason (they only sold 2-door RAV-4’s in the United States for model years 1996 and 1997)…
My Niece loved the look of the car, it was small, manual and she even liked the green color of the car… She was excited. She is currently a camp counselor in Colorado and does not need a car for the summer, so I have until August 15th to complete the work..

I LOOK AT THE CAR
I had to make an Early morning drive around 50 miles north of Columbus to a place known as Apple Valley…. Which is north of Mount Vernon, Ohio in the middle of nowhere…. I remember visiting this place as a kid with my Dad… They were pushing this development in the 80’s as hard as they could… Using the offer of Prizes by mail which informed you that you had already won a prize and you could only claim it if you visited the development and heard the Salesman’s pitch about the wonderful amenities of the lake and the incredible beauty and value of the lots which were still available… It was one of those prize contest where the Grand Prize was $10,000 and there were ten second prizes (I believe they were VCR’s, which in 1982 were not that common and were the pinnacle of home theater technology) and the third prize (which everyone won) was a gift certificate for some kind of restaurant I believe…

This morning there was frost on the ground and in the windows of all unmoved cars. I drove up and the Seller met me after I rang his doorbell. I asked him numerous questions about the car (and a little about him)…
He stated he worked as an automotive shop class instructor and had worked for a Major Toyota Dealership in Columbus for 20 years.
The car was what I expected for less than $1000 and he told me he believed the #1 cylinder head was cracked and leaking… He bought the car expecting it to be a blown head gasket, so he replaced the head gasket and the problem didn’t go away… The car would start, but smoke would immediately pour out… He mentioned the frustrations of working on this engine a (3S-FE) which is a cast iron block 2.0 liter engine that was the workhorse of Toyota for over a decade (this engine later became the 2.2L). Namely the frustration was that the head location combined with a rear plenum provided little access to remove the head… Couple this with miniscule access to the timing cover and I could sense the frustration as well… He lifted his arms to show all the scratches and he said the he never wanted to do this job again… On the plus side, the 3S-FE is a great engine and known for its reliability…

I did agree something was wrong, it was burning plumes of thick white smoke…
As I walked around the car I noticed what appeared to be a 22 caliber bullet hole in the drivers side of the car… As I asked him about it he mentioned that when he got the car the window was broken as well….
This naturally brought up the question of how he acquired the car… He did not go into full details, but what I could gather it was owned by a student of his and he had worked on it before… (including replacing the 5th gear on the transmission, which was a known problem for this car)
Later as I would tell this story about the bullet hole I was surprised at the amount of people who found this very disturbing…. Like it was a murder scene or something…..

I looked at the bullet hole as something quite different… As a teenager of driving age I remember going to a buddies house and us shooting his .22 out on his farm… And guess what was on that farm… A Shootin’ Car…. Not completely unknown around where I was to have a Shootin’ car…
Well I believe this car was on the short list to become a full time shootin’ car for someone but was sold to our auto shop teacher who believed he could get it to work… and possibly flip it for a profit..

As I ponder this car I look it over… it has its share of underside rust pickling (not uncommon for an Ohio car of this Era to have) and the complete lack of any exhaust system (a straight pipe).
I offer him $600 for the car, and he comes back that the least he can take is $700…. So I agree…
I give him a deposit and told him I will return in a day with a dolly to tow the RAV back to my house…
The next day I visted the local Hardware store which has a tow dolly for the RAV… Since the RAV is All wheel drive and I don’t feel like disconnecting the drive shaft… So I get a tow dolly which the vehicle has to be completely driven on… First blood has been drawn with expenses for this vehicle… $63 for a one day, same return location rental of this dolly….
I drove back to Apple valley and pay the man the rest of the money for the RAV4 , he is nice enough to start the RAV and drive it up the dolly… The car is coughing, wheezing, leaking coolant and smoking the whole 20 foot drive onto the dolly…..
He hands the title over to me with the exchange of the remaining cash… A clean title and a car that needs a lot of work…. I am sure he was happy to see that RAV go…

On this adventure. I have:

Rebuilt the engine… Stripped down to bare block
Removed the engine (twice)… Got shipped the wrong head.
Replaced the clutch, pressure plate and got the flywheel re-surfaced.
Replace the wheel bearings and a steering knuckle.
Replaced the brakes
Put in entire new exhaust system.
Replaced Radiator and condenser (and fixed the Air conditioning)
Replaced tires (they were mismatched)

A pic of the car… Stay tuned for lots more pics and story of the rebuild and bringing this car back to life…

Topic

[Its me]

I never took any really good pics of the car after I was done, so I was happy when my Niece sent me this picture last week of ELSA when she took her rock climbing in Colorado!

Note, I added the luggage racks(she took the front one off to make the front sunroof panel easier to remove), rear spoiler (hard to see, but at the top of the rear door, and the Plastic RAV4 Tire cover (was bare tire when I got the car)… Got all of these from the picknpull 🙂

My niece added the bike rack… A perfect car for Colorado!

-Karl

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